Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.  

The day before he was crucified, Jesus prayed the prayer in John 17. He begins, “Father, the hour has come…. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Jesus announced that his work on earth was finished. He had a clear sense of God’s to-do list for him, and he did it all. 

I’m more like Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, who said, “God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind I will never die.” For Jesus, dying the next day was part of the work God gave him to do. Oddly enough, in the whole gospel of John, Jesus never said clearly he was expecting to die. He left it to the gospel writer John, to explain his puzzling predictions. For example, when Jesus said he would be “lifted up from the earth,” John explains that he was describing death on a cross (John 12:32-33). 

Let’s look briefly at three requests in Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

First he prays for himself saying, “Glorify me, God, so I can glorify you.” On meaning of “glory” is “beautiful” or “majestic” as in “a glorious sunrise”. It is also used of fame or success, like when a sports star “covers himself in glory.” Or more commonly with the teams I support, the commentator says, “They sure didn’t cover themselves with glory today!” 

I think the glory Jesus prays for is the success of the work he plans to do by dying and rising again. Jesus wants this great finale of his ministry to cover himself and God in glory. And then he wants to return to the glory he came from, a place of beauty and majesty and splendor in God’s presence in heaven.

Second, Jesus prays that God will protect the disciples from the evil one and sanctify them by the truth. He recognizes how dangerous the evil one or other enemies will be as they try to subvert the disciples’ mission or kill them. Failure may come from discouragement, unbelief, or moral failure within, or from persecution without.

Jesus prays for his disciples: “Father, they are not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth.” The disciples will live in the world as Jesus did, but he prays that their strength and identity will come from outside the world, from the truth that resides in God.

Third, Jesus prays for future believers–those who will receive the disciples’ message. He prays they will experience complete unity, in the same way Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus. Given the disunity in the worldwide Christian church today, it seems to me this prayer has gone unanswered for 2100 years. I hope the answer will come during our lifetime. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we pray for our mission as Jesus prayed for his. Our lives and work look small and mundane and unimportant. When at last we bring them to your judgement, may we hear you say, “Well done.” May we be covered in glory. 

We pray for all your servants as Jesus did. Protect us from the evil one. Sanctify us by your truth, for your word is truth. 

We pray for the church using the Anglican liturgy:
“Remember, Lord,
your one holy catholic and apostolic Church,
redeemed by the blood of your Christ.
Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace” (The Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada. Toronto: ABC publishing, 1985. 195.)

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.  

In John chapters 14, 15, and 16, Jesus made long speeches on random topics with lots of repetition. He predicted events but didn’t give a timeline. He said, “I’m going away. You can’t come. I’ll send an advocate. In a little while you won’t see me, and then in a little while you will see me.” 

The confused disciples asked (in John 16), “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he’s saying” (vv. 17-18). I have the same problem: I often don’t understand Jesus. 

Instead of interpreting Jesus’ speech in John 16, I’ll just make a few observations:

First, it’s a fool’s errand to improve Jesus’ message by giving it an outline, putting his predictions in chronological order, and deleting his repetitions. Charles Neider took that approach with Mark Twain’s autobiography, quite successfully I think, but it’s not a job I’m competent to do, especially with things Jesus said. 

Second, I can’t explain Jesus’ words in a way that will give you “A ha!” moment making you feel, “Now at last I understand it.” For that, you need my Study Bible for Curmudgeonly Seniors. Unfortunately, I haven’t written it yet. I hope you don’t mind waiting.  

Another observation on John 16: Jesus describes two departures, not just one. 

First, he’ll go away for a little while. That’s when he is crucified and buried. It would have been much clearer if he had said, “Tomorrow is my crucifixion day. It will make you sad. But wait a little while, because Sunday is my resurrection day. That will make you glad.” 

Jesus’ second departure would be when he returned to heaven, only a couple months after the Last Supper. And he promised that when he went away that time, he would return in the person of his invisible advocate–the Holy Spirit–who would live in his disciples. That too would make them glad. 

My final observation is that Jesus promises to give many gifts to his disciples. One was the Spirit of truth (v. 12). We desperately need that gift today! Why? Because we struggle with many truths: the objective truth of science, the self-evident truth of nature, our intuitive sense of truth about people’s desires and motivations, the carefully interpreted truth we find in the Bible. We need the Spirit of truth to guide us to Jesus, who is himself the truth.

Jesus also gave the gift of prayer when he said, “My father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (v. 23). Prayer doesn’t work that way for me. I don’t get whatever I ask. But I’m with the disciples on this. I’m on the journey with Jesus. Somewhere, somehow, the promise is for me. 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, John 16 closes with your statement “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (v. 33). You had trouble in this world, Jesus. You died a martyr, and you invite us to come and die. We experience the trouble you promised: trouble in our minds and hearts and emotions, trouble in our relationships, trouble finding our way in the world. And we hear your promise of more trouble ahead.

But we believe you have overcome the world. Conquer the world in which we live, and conquer the world within us, Jesus. Live inside us by the advocate you send, correct our thinking by the Spirit of truth, teach to us ask the Father for whatever we want in your name, and bring us to that place you promised where no one can take away our joy.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.  

In John 15, Jesus told the disciples to abide in him, to remain in him. He explained this with a word picture, in which God is a gardener, Jesus is a grapevine in God’s garden, and the disciples are branches growing out of the vine.

The branches have two choices: stay connected to the vine so life will flow into them and they will produce grapes. Or disconnect from the vine, in which case they will fall off, dry up, and be burned as rubbish. 

I have never connected strongly with Christ’s gardening metaphor. I don’t think of myself as a branch waving in the wind trying to produce grapes. I’m more on the consumer end of the food chain–I like grapes that have turned into wine, beside a small plate of appetizers and a good book. 

In God’s garden, the branch is permanently and organically connected to the vine. Jesus wants his disciples to have a similar relationship to him. Here are two things I notice about this relationship.

First, unlike the branch and the vine, our connection to Christ is invisible. We don’t see him, we don’t see the Spirit he sends as advocate, and we don’t see a joint where our branch grows out of his vine. Remaining in him is an invisible process. 

Many people say about world religions, “They’re all basically the same because they all say ‘Do to others as you want others to do to you’.” But that’s not what Jesus says in John 15. He does not tell us we need a visible standard of moral behaviour. He says we need an invisible connection to him so his life can flow into our life and produce fruit. He tells us to remain in him, to sustain the connection, to persevere in our relationship. Fruitfulness is not the goal, it is a byproduct of the relationship. 

A second way in which the garden picture can play out is if the vine and the branch terminate their relationship and go separate ways. A branch disconnected from the vine will die.  If we disconnect from Jesus, we lose the flow of his life him into us that makes it possible for us to bear fruit and behave well.

Author Larry Crabb in his book, “Inside Out” (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2013) says the only way to achieve true and lasting change is to change on the inside first. Jesus wants to do an inside job on us, to connect us to himself in a way that changes our inner motivation, our thinking, our heart. 

Notice, however, that Jesus doesn’t avoid the topic of moral responsibility. He goes on to  say, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Does it sound like he is promoting love as the means by which we remain in him? Or is love the fruit of remaining in him? Jesus doesn’t give us a scientific formula to explain this. Nor does he give instructions on how to manage our relationship in a way that guarantees the fruit of love. Jesus just makes two simple suggestions: abide in him and love one another.

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we have often set out to love our neighbor–perhaps our spouse or children or colleagues or others. But our good intentions founder on the rocks of our selfishness, our hurts, our likes and dislikes. We seem to be conditioned against long term, faithful love for these fallible and wayward humans around us. How quickly our grand plans reduce to “Don’t do to others what you don’t want others to do to you.” Is this a golden rule? Don’t be a jerk. Don’t promote evil against others. Maintain a nice, negative morality that requires only a grudging willingness to behave moderately well, that doesn’t aspire to love.

Jesus, we need to be changed on the inside. We need a new capacity to become lovers–lovers of God and others. We need a new source of strength to enable us. We need an abiding connection to you, so your life will flow into us and bear fruit. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.